Jeremy C Kester

Note: This review is for 6 books in the middle grade graphic novels.

Review: The Bad Guys by Aaron Blabey

From my next to last post, one can figure out that seeing the writer at an event sparked my interest in reading these books for myself rather than catching the occasional scene as my son reads the book or is being read to (he’s read it and been read to multiple times).

These have been my son’s favorite series since he discovered “The Bad Guys” book 1, and for good reason. After plowing through the 6 books out now, I can safely say that these books would have easily been my favorite as an elementary school boy. They are fun reads.

The series follows 5 characters that as the story asserts, have a natural reputation for being bad guys: the big bad wolf, a shark, a snake, a piranha, and starting in book 2, a tarantula. Tired of being bad guys, they try their hands at doing good deeds in order to change their reputation (really it’s Mr. Wolf – the others are just going along with it). Let’s just say, mayhem ensues.

This series is rife with humor. From the gratuitous fart and poop jokes, weird disguises, amusing violence (they keep trying to eat each other), to the more subtle joke of Mr. Shark and Mr. Piranha constantly being called out for being out of water while refusing to address exactly how they are surviving out of water, Aaron Blabey knows how to get a laugh. Particularly from boys (I laughed a bunch too), but also there were plenty of girls at the signing who love the stories too.

If you have a kid who says that everything they read is boring, show them this series. But being middle-grade graphic novels should not detract anyone from reading this. As Aaron had said during his event, he wrote these to be fun, particularly to save his two kids from having to read things that bored them to literal tears. They are indeed fun.

They might be kids’ books, but this adult certainly enjoyed them.